This Document assumes that you have had your Build Game running on your current
system (same hardware) with either Windows95,98 or ME at some point in time. Basically this
will indicate that your hardware is compatible with your game. If you have not used the
hardware in older windows, just continue on.

The following information is written in away to help you understand debugging
procedures as well as providing setup support.

This document will also benefit anyone trying to get a DOS version of BUILD and any
variation of the tool to work in XP. Although the variations don't always work to
well. EDITART or and variation of said program can also benefit from this document.
Under most conditions EDITART has seemed to run at 100% without additional configuration,
double clicking in Windows Explorer.

3 - Now cut and paste all your BUILD games into the C:\bldgames folder. (EX:
C:\bldgames\DUKE3D or C:\bldgames\BLOOD )

4 - Make another folder within the C:\bldgames folder and call it C:\bldgames\blddos

5 - Copy the WindowsNT versions of AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. These are located in
the C:\WinNT\System32\ Folder. They are named AUTOEXEC.NT and CONFIG.NT. Copy these two
files to the C:\bldgames\blddos folder.

6 - Goto your games folder and Right-click the its executable, select Properties and
click on the Program tab. Now click on the Advanced button and type in the directory paths
as you see them on the next line. Just replace whatever is there.
C:\bldgames\blddos\AUTOEXEC.NT and C:\bldgames\blddos\CONFIG.NT

7 - Now setup your MS-DOS shortcut with the following instructions... Please note: If
you prefer not to setup your MS-DOS shortcut manually, you can download them from RTCM and
skip the entire step 7.

Using a MS-DOS Shortcut provides the best environment for the game while it runs inside
Windows. But there's a performance cost: other Window applications will run slowly. But in
most cases you will not want to run a BUILD game and window applications at the same time.
The most obvious time you would run any other applications is when you play Online and you
may be using special connection software.

A Shortcut simply provides a link to a program you can customize. Normally, when you
launch a DOS program, WindowsNT makes its best guess at running it. WindowsNT wasn't
designed to run all DOS applications this way. With a Shortcut, you can manually help
WindowsNT run the WinDos Box much better.

While running WindowsNT, right click anywhere on the desktop.

Select New then pick Shortcut.

When asked for the Command line, enter the game's path by using the Browse feature.

Then provide a name and pick an icon (many icons are available for Build games that you
can download).

You now have a new Shortcut on your desktop!

Next, right click on it and choose Properties.

Set the Tabs as follows: (optimize)

Tab: General

Archive: Check this

Tab: Program

Command line: Points to your C:\DUKE3D\DUKE3D.EXE Tip: When asked for the Command line,
you can enter "COMMAND.COM" in front of the path pointing to your game. This
turns the Shortcut into a custom MS-DOS Prompt that won't automatically start Duke.
Because you get a DOS prompt, you can use it to run any DOS game or application with the
optimized settings of the WinBox, And your able to use command line switches.

Working: You MAY want to set this to your Duke3D folder C:\DUKE3D\

Batch File: This MAY point to your Duke.bat file (set the Batch file up with ONLY what
you NEED to play Duke)

Shortcut Key: You MAY want a quick key to the game

Run: Use normal or maximized (Your game may run better at the maximized setting)

Close on exit: Check it (uncheck if you desire or require the last screen to display -
possible usage: error checking)

You'll see 4 memory sections. Usually, the "Auto" setting works fine for each
but consider selecting the largest amount available on your machine.

Conventional Total: Set to Auto

Initial environment: Set to Auto

Protected: Checked +EMS: Auto (Alt: none)

XMS: Auto (Alt: none) Uses HMA: Checked

DPMI: Auto (Alt: 12288 on a 32mb system)

Tab : Screen

Full Screen: Checked

Initial Size: Default

Window: Unchecked

Restore Settings : Checked

Fast ROM: Checked

Dynamic memory allocation: Unchecked (if running an external program for use with Duke,
and it performs poorly, try checking this box).

Tab : Misc.

Allow screen saver: NOT Checked

QuickEdit: NOT Checked

Exclusive mode: Check this

Background Suspend: Check this if you're NOT running a program to help Duke3D perform
such as Scitech or another outside program

Warn if Still Active: Checked

Idle Sensitivity: Play with this. Try 25% (Alt:75) on the slidebar. (If you have like
Scitech running 50% (Alt: 75) may be a good setting.) If you have NOTHING running such as
Network cards/Internet connection try 10% (Alt: 100)

Run in 256 colors: Checked (Duke3D,NAM,WWIIGI is a 256 color game, some
other Build Games
have enhanced colors, so uncheck it for those games, Blood,Shadow Warrior...)

Run in 640 x 480 resolution: Unchecked

Disable visual themes: Checked

Input(WinXP Only)

Turn off advanced text services: Checked

8 - Now make an identical Shortcut for SETUP.EXE re-using the instructions above.

Testing Phase

1 - Configure the games Setup Options (from setup.exe)

Music Card - Set to no music/off

Sound Card - Set to no sound/off

Video Resolution - Set to 320x200 (non-Vesa)

2 - Now save settings and launch Duke from within setup.exe

3 - The game should load and run correctly with no sound. Play the game for awhile (at
least 10mins) and if the game remains stable, quite and exit out of the game.

4 - Now RE-Configure the games Setup Options (from setup.exe)

Video Resolution - Set to 640x480 (Vesa)

5 - Now save settings and launch Duke from within setup.exe and Repeat step 3 above.

6 - If the game didn't run or drops out you may have a Vesa related problem. Ensure
that your video card drivers contain the VESA 2.0/3.0 support. You may have to contact
your video card company to request that full VESA 2.0 or 3.0 is added back in. You can
also use older Video Drivers to obtain VESA support. If your uncertain at this point and
you want to continue with this guide, move on to the following step. (If the game ran fine
at 640x480 skip Step 7 and 8)

7 - We will now attempt to get VESA working (assuming your drivers support VESA). You
will need Ken Silverman's (nolfb.zip) patch workaround. This will fool your BUILD Game
into thinking that VESA 2.0 is not available and forces the game to drop back to VESA 1.2
standards. Doing so disables the linear framebuffer mode, this will drop the FPS in the
game. To install Ken's workaround, just unzip it and place the NOLFB.COM file in
C:\bldgames\blddos\ folder. Now goto the AUTOEXEC.NT file you copied earlier and add
this line after the dosx line. C:\bldgames\blddos\NOLFB.COM

8 - Repeat step 1 above, then move on to step 2, 3 , etc

9 - You should now have Duke Running at High-Res and with Stable performance. If not
then re-read the above steps and insure you have done each correctly.

Some systems can run the higher resolutions like 800x600 or even 1024x768. It all depends
on your Hardware. The jump from 640x480 to 800x600 gives some improvement, Distant
textures and sprites would appear clearer or form a better image, but don't expect to much.
For all its worth there is not nearly enough of a difference in the games details jumping
from 800x600 to 1024x768. Refresh rate is normally limited to 60 Hz, some video
card manufactures have fixed this however. If you have done everything right and want to
try to get above 640x480 then read the next section below, "VGA FIX"

VGA FIX

Higher Resolutions like 800 x 600: If you receive the error "Frequency out of
Range" from your monitor or it shutsdown to sleep mode or if the game drops out. You
can try the following workaround. It patch's the vga.sys file of Windows XP (upto
SP2 Only, no patch for SP3) to allow higher
resolutions by unlocking the I/O ports to your Video Cards BIOS.

You can uninstall the patch if it causes problems. Note: Its primarily for NVIDIA
cards but works for others as well with different results. EX: you may not get
the selection of resolution that you want.

CAUTION: I Advise you to stick with 640x480 for now and get your sound setup first,
then come back to these steps. I say this because the patch can effect the overall
performance of your BUILD Game and can degrade the Sound. It will ultimately make the steps
for setting up the sound to be inaccurate. EX: your sound maybe really fine but this patch
can make it seem broken. So skip down to "Sound Setup" and come back when your
running nice.

1 - Now RE-Configure the games Setup Options (from setup.exe)

Video Resolution - Set to 800x600(Vesa) or 1024x768(Vesa)

2 - You'll need to download the VGAFIX program.(winxpfix.exe)

3 - Run it and follow the instructions provided for installation.

4 - Restart your system

5 - Run your game

6 - You should now be running your game at 800x600 with questionable performance. If
your not running at the quality you prefer, re run winxpfix.exe to uninstall the patch and
restart your system. Then stick with 640x480.

Resolution higher than 640 x 480 will have a noticeable drop and response to your game.
We loose
the vital linear framebuffer mode used for higher end DOS games such as your BUILD Game. This is the result of not having a completely compatible set of VESA 2.0/3.0 Drivers
and the use of NOLFB.COM, Ken Silverman's TSR tool that needs to
drop VESA support down to VESA v1.2 (in turn switching down to the
old slower banked memory access). Early ATI cards and NVIDIA GeForce
2 and 3 cards have no problem with this since they have driver
support.

Sound Setup

Setting up Standard Sound in Windows XP is much easier than say in Windows 95/98/ME.
The reason being is that XP uses the old Sound Blaster Standard regardless of your Sound
Card hardware or settings.

If you want graphics above the VGA-modes (EX: SVGA), your Video
Card needs to have VBE
(VESA BIOS Extension) built in. It's a graphics standard that is used by BUILD
games that are written for the MS-DOS operating system. It allows
MS-DOS BUILD games to support screen resolutions and color depths
beyond those supported by the VGA standard. Unfortunately some cards
only support a limited subset of VESA modes. Since VBE is normally
implemented in the Video BIOS, no driver support is normally used
under WinXP by the Video Card Manufacturer. However you can gain full VESA support if you have a cards
specific VESA driver which most Video Cards do not have in XP.
That's where the problem is with XP. Video Card Manufactures moved
all VESA support to the BIOS rather than have a
custom driver and let XP control those mode via it's faulty VGA.SYS...

Write to your Video Card Maker and tell them you need VESA 2.0 and/or 3.0 supported in
there Windows XP Drivers. Tell them the exact Build Games you want to run. Give them as
much detail as you can. In there eyes they are seeing VESA(2D) phasing out so why support
it on modern systems.

If your Video card supports at least full VBE version;
2.0 (even 3.0), then linear framebuffer modes
should be supported. This allows the use of full color and
resolution for your protected mode DOS BUILD games and tools. In
fact Windows XP will use VBE modes for display until your Graphics
Driver is installed.

For running fullscreen DOS applications in VESA graphics modes.
VGA.SYS controls it and in most cases it traps i/o ports and
prevents VESA-based programs to run correctly. The VGA fix tool
fixes a problem in the VGA.SYS driver supplied with Windows 2000/XP,
that sends the monitors to sleep with several video cards while
running DOS Games. It only supports up to WinXP Service Pack 2 and
Windows 2003 Server SP1.